A co-ownership in difficulty: recognising the signs, knowing the procedures

The signs that come before any procedure

Service-public defines a co-ownership in difficulty by its effects: operations disrupted to the point of compromising its balance, which most often shows as a sharp rise in unpaid charges or cash flow that can no longer cover water, energy or works. Cash is therefore what needs watching, because a co-ownership can be rich in property and unable to pay a bill.

The first sign can be read in the summary sheet, which any co-owner obtains free each year: the amount of arrears, set against the budget, and the amount owed to suppliers. On those two lines, supplier debt that grows from one year to the next almost always announces what follows.

The administration itself uses an earlier marker than the law. For the MaPrimeRénov' Copropriété grant, the Anah describes as fragile a co-ownership whose arrears reach at least 8% of the budget voted two years earlier. The marker has no legal force; it shows the level at which the State considers that a building needs help.

Then come governance signs: accounts the meeting refuses to approve, a general meeting that no longer takes place, a lift contractor that suspends its service for non-payment. The Gazette article on buying in a co-ownership describes what shows in the minutes; what follows concerns what the law sets in motion.

The alert threshold: 25% or 15% of sums due

Article 29-1 A of the law of 10 July 1965 sets the trigger. At the closing of the accounts, if the sums still unpaid under the provisional budget and the works fund reach 25% of the sums due, the alert procedure becomes mandatory. The threshold falls to 15% in co-ownerships of 201 lots or more, those of 200 lots or fewer remaining at 25%. Sums that fell due in the month before closing are not counted.

A second trigger has nothing to do with figures: the accounts not having been approved by the meeting for at least two years. A co-ownership that can no longer vote its accounts is treated like one that can no longer pay them.

The syndic must then inform the council without delay and petition the president of the judicial court where the building stands to appoint an ad hoc agent. The syndic is bound to do so, and needs no authorisation from the meeting.

If the syndic does nothing, others can go to the judge, this time by summons: co-owners together holding at least 15% of the votes, the council president, a creditor whose invoices for works, water or energy, voted and carried out, have remained unpaid for at least six months despite a payment order, the prefect, the public prosecutor, the president of the intermunicipal body responsible for housing, or the mayor.

The ad hoc agent: a diagnosis, not a guardianship

The ad hoc agent replaces no one. The syndic stays in place and the meeting keeps its powers. The agent's task is to analyse the co-ownership's finances and the state of the building, to propose the measures that will restore balance and safety, and to carry out any useful mediation between co-owners, contractors and creditors.

The syndic hands over the necessary documents within 15 days of notification of the decision. The agent sends a report to the judge within three months, renewable once: legal organisation, technical situation, functioning of the bodies, analysis of accounts and disputes, then recommendations ranked by priority with a rough estimate of costs.

The report then binds the syndic, who puts on the agenda the resolutions needed to implement it, at a meeting that must be held within six months of the report, or within three months if urgent measures are recommended. If no meeting is planned within that time, the syndic convenes one specially.

The cost of the mission does not necessarily fall on the syndicate. The judge decides, with reasons, who bears it and in what proportion, and may charge all or part of it to the syndic or the creditors depending on their role in the decline. The ad hoc agent cannot become the co-ownership's syndic at the end of the mission.

The provisional administrator: when the syndicate can no longer cope

The next level answers two situations: a financial balance seriously compromised, or a syndicate unable to provide for the conservation of the building. The president of the judicial court may then appoint a provisional administrator, at the request of co-owners holding 15% of the votes, the syndic, the mayor, the prefect, the prosecutor, the president of the intermunicipal body or the ad hoc agent.

With the appointment, the syndic's contract ends without compensation, and the administrator receives all the syndic's powers, together with all or part of those of the meeting and the council. Only property purchases and sales and changes to the co-ownership regulations remain outside the administrator's hands. The sitting syndic cannot be appointed, and the mission lasts at least 12 months.

The main effect is financial. Earlier debts cease to be payable for 12 months, up to 30 months at the administrator's request, except public and social debts. Creditors' proceedings stop, late penalties are suspended, as are repayments of a collective loan. Creditors have three months to declare their claims, and a repayment plan, approved by the judge, then organises settlement.

This breathing space, which erases no debt, leaves the administrator time to recover arrears and renegotiate, then to have conservation and safety work carried out. The administrator reports to the judge at least once a year, and every co-owner can consult the report.

The safeguard plan: public authorities step in

The safeguard plan, provided for in article L.615-1 of the construction and housing code, targets buildings facing serious social, technical and financial difficulties that threaten their conservation. The initiative lies with the prefect, on the prefect's own motion or on a proposal from the mayor, the intermunicipal body, residents' or co-owners' associations, or the provisional administrator.

The prefect sets up a commission, whose members include the mayor, the president of the departmental council and the council president or a representative of the co-owners. It draws up a diagnosis and proposes a plan that sets out, over five years, the necessary measures: restoring finances, simplifying the legal structure, carrying out conservation or cost-reducing works, supporting the occupants.

The approved plan takes the form of an agreement between the public bodies, the provisional administrator if there is one, and the private parties concerned, specifying the timetable and financing. A coordinator oversees its execution and serves formal notice on parties that fail to keep their commitments.

The law of 9 April 2024 created a status of collective-interest syndic, intended to work in these co-ownerships. Its implementing decree, the decree of 10 May 2025, has been published: it organises the approval of this syndic by the préfet.

What a council can do before it comes to that

Most co-ownerships in procedure got there slowly. A council that reads the summary sheet each year, compares arrears with the budget and asks how recovery is going on each file sees the difficulty coming long before the 25% threshold. Recovering unpaid charges is part of the syndic's mandate.

Régie Promenade manages co-ownerships in Nice from its offices at 107 Promenade des Anglais. In an older building, arrears and postponed works feed each other; we prefer to present the council, every quarter, with the state of recovery and cash flow, so that the alert, if it ever becomes necessary, surprises no one.